consequences of reason
by kasey1939
Summary: When Henry is questioning everything he thought he knew someone shows up to teach him the consequences of reason.
1. Chapter 1

Henry sat in his "fort" hugging his book of fairtales and tried to figure out where it all went wrong. When he'd first read the book everything had seemed so simple. Find his mom, bring her to Story Brooke, break the curse, and live happily ever after. Now, the curse was broken and his mom was here, but there didn't seem to be a happily ever after for them because the enchanted forest was gone. None of them could leave Story Brooke without losing themselves and everything was just a mess. He was so busy fighting his tears and his misery that he didn't realize he wasn't alone anymore until the girl was right next to him.

"Who are you? How did you find me?" He was instantly suspicious of her, as it seemed that everyone was out to get him these days.

"Well, my name is Lydia and what makes you think I was looking for you? Who are you?" He could tell from her tone her last question was a bit mocking, but to be polite he answered anyway.

"I'm Henry and the only reason anyone comes here anymore is to look for me." Which in and of its self was a sad statement about his life that people kept having to come find him.

"Maybe that was true before the curse broke but I think everyone will agree things are different now."

Boy was that an understatement Looking at her more closely he tried to place her. She was around his age, with bright honey brown hair and green eyes. He didn't remember seeing her around town and he didn't remember her from the book either. Thinking of the book he looked down at it gripped tightly in his hands like just seeing the cover would tell him who she was.

"Oh, I'm not in there darling. I was never that interesting or important, never warranted so much as a foot note. Now that we got that out of the way, why don't you tell me why you're out here crying your eyes out all alone?" She looked genuinely concerned with a sigh he relented under her steady gaze. Maybe she could help.

"Everything's all wrong! I thought when the curse broke we would all go home and… and…" He held up the book like it would finish the sentence he couldn't.

"And you could live the life you saw in the book? The life you think you should have had?" He nodded, finally someone understood!

"Well, I just have one question. Was the life you ended up with so terrible?"

She didn't understand at all. Dejected he looked down at his lap not able to meet her eyes for his confession.

"Yes! I was adopted by the Evil Queen."

"True, but was she ever Evil to you? Did she ever hurt you?"

"No, but everyone else…" He didn't even get to finish is speech about good versus evil and how his adopted mother was the queen of all evil. He was beginning to get the feeling that he wasn't in control of this conversation, and that it wasn't really a conversation at all. He began to understand what August was talking about when he told his mom that 'we need to talk' really meant 'I need to tell you something and you need to just shut up and listen because I'm right and you're you, you pitiful simple man'.

"Have their reasons for being angry with her, but we're not talking about them now are we? What did she do to you?"

Henry had to think about it a minute, which shocked him. She was the evil queen the reasons should just flow out of his mouth.

"When the curse ended she abducted me." There! That was definitely evil.

"She may have reacted badly, done the wrong thing, but she was reacting to losing you. You were leaving her all alone and she loved you and didn't want to lose you. Also if you'll remember right when she realized how unhappy you were she let you go didn't she?"

"Yeah, but she … put me under a sleep spell."

"Way I heard it was that curse wasn't meant for you at all and she cried by your bedside for hours. Next." He began to realize he was losing this… whatever it was. It wasn't an argument because she wasn't arguing but it was most definitely something.

"She enacted the curse in first place!" Defend that!

"That was nearly thirty years ago. Pay attention, we're still focusing on you. What else?" Her tone was soft like she was starting to think he wasn't all there.

"When I found my real mom she punished me."

"That was because you ran off without so much as a note to tell her where you were and worried her half to death, evil would have been if she didn't care about your safety, then you waltz back in and tell her that not only do you hate her but that you're replacing her. Got anything else?" Again with the tone.

"Do you have answers to justify everything she's done?"

"You have answers to vilify everything, I'm just playing devils advocate."

"Devil's right!" That statement got him a look which clearly said such a thing was beneath him, and unfortunately she was right, it was.

"How do you know so much anyway? Do you work for her!" She was wrong! She had to be, evil didn't love, it couldn't, she couldn't.

"I may not be book worthy, but that doesn't make me stupid and I have been here awhile. Plus, dude, I'm eight I don't work for anyone."

"Sorry." What else could he say? "So what you're saying is that she isn't evil?" Time for her to be on the other end of this see how she likes answering questions that don't really seem to have an answer.

"No I'm saying that before you cut her out of your life completely maybe you should look at both sides of things, not just the one you want to be right. Yes, your birth mother is here now, but she didn't come looking for you, Henry, you had to go to her. Then you practically had to force her to stay."

"So what now my mom's the evil one? I knew it you work for Regina, this is all a trick!" She must be working for Regina, everyone knows that the Charmings are the good guys and his mom is their daughter, she was inherently good.

"No, I'm saying there is no good or evil not in the real world, only choices, consequences, and reasons. In books and stories it's easy to see who should win and who should lose, but in real life, in the day to day, it's a bit more complicated. Half of writing a story is deciding the truth, not everything makes it onto the pages. Every day we make thousands of choice and each choice we make leads to another decision and another after that. The other side of that though is that every decision we make every choice we choose has both a reason for that choice and a consequence for making it. If you want to truly understand someone, to fairly judge them, then look first on the reason behind the choice, then the other way they could have gone knowing that reason, then the consequences not the other way around.

"You're looking at everything through the eyes of a story where you see the end result and not the beginning not what drives that person not what made them who they are now. To be fair and just, which from our talk is what I think you're aiming for, you need to look at your own experiences with Regina and stop thinking about the past, especially a past that you weren't part of."

"Why what difference does that make?"

"Well, let's look at the side of good for a minute, okay? Ruby is a wonderful person, loyal, protective, kind, but she also ate the love of her life before she knew she was a wolf and learned control. Cinderella made a deal with Rumplestiltskin to go to a party where she met her own prince charming and in exchange she had to give up her first born, only she didn't know that would be the price until after the wedding. Or even Doc Hopper, who's so loyal to Gepeto and has been trying to help you as best he can, but his loyalty stems from his guilt for causing Gepeto to lose his family."

"What's your point?" He already knew all of this it was in the book, but when he'd read them they had been just stories, only words on a page now that she said them out loud they sounded horrible and kind of evil.

"My point is everyone in this town had done something they regret the only thing that sets… Ruby or Cinderella apart from Regina or Rumplestiltskin is that you know the reasons behind their actions, their excuses and for you that excuses them. You knew they never meant hurt anyone so that kept them good in your mind."

"So?"

"So, what were Regina's reasons? Why did she make the choices that she did, what started it all? Do you even know? More over, do you even care enough to ask?"

"Emma is my mom and she doesn't want me talking to Regina." That statement was met with a sigh so heartfelt and full of patience he nearly wanted to take it back rather than hear her reply. He'd wanted help, answers, and he was getting that, they just weren't the answers he thought he'd find.

"Look, Emma is a good woman, but just because she stayed finally that doesn't make her a saint and the things Regina, your mom, did to other people shouldn't make her the bad guy in your eyes. It isn't that automatic. Or at least it shouldn't be if you really are a good person."

"Regina isn't my mom! And I am a good person!" How could she even say that?

"For ten years she was your mom, the only one you had. For the first ten years of your life she was your mom, your world, she stayed up with you when you were sick; she taught you everything you needed to become who you are now. Every ounce of goodness in you in some part came from her. She was there for every birthday, every Christmas. She took care of you and blood or no, that just doesn't disappear because you think it should. You were willing to defy everyone for Emma, why should Regina be any different. The good people you want to be like, the people in that book you're holding so tightly, the truly good ones always do what's right not just what's easy. So what's the right thing to do now?"

"What am I supposed to do just go back to her?" He couldn't do that. Why didn't she understand?

"Just, talk to her. Ask her all those questions rolling around in that head of yours, she's the only one with those answers you're really looking for. When you've done that come back here and we'll talk about what comes next."

With that she was up and walking away. How would she even know when to come back? Or even that he would do what she said? Oh, well, he'd try and figure her out later for now it looked like he was going home.

**Authors Note : This story starts when they're both around the age Henry is on the show so around ten or so but after a few chapters their ages will jump to around sixteen when all the good stuff will start. As always please read and review.**


	2. Chapter 2

Henry stared at the door that lead to the place that had been his home for so long and to his surprise he actually felt sad that it wasn't his home anymore. Reaching up before he lost his courage he rang the doorbell and waited for his mom to answer. Lydia had been right, no matter what else she was not matter that Emma was his mother, Regina was still his mom. He heard her high heels clicking on the hard tile floor and knew she was almost to the door. For years the sound of her heels clicking away was how he knew where she was in the house. It was how he knew she was always there.

As the door slid open he watched her face change from anger directed at any of the countless adults who had been coming to her since to curse broke to a mix of sorrow and joy at seeing him standing there. It was then that he finally understood what Lydia had been trying to make him see. His mom was not only alone, she was lonely. He'd moved on to a new family where he was surrounded by love and life and he'd just left her behind by herself. He finally came to a decision he'd been battling with since Lydia began to talk to him. He would give his mom a second chance. If he'd learned anything from his book it was that everyone deserves a second chance.

"Hi mom, can we talk?"

Regina didn't know what to think. When she'd first seen Henry on her doorstep she'd been so happy but also so sad that he wasn't hers anymore, then he'd called her mom. At first she thought it might be a trick, she was ashamed of it now but she'd thought he'd been sent to distract her, but it had been ten minutes and nothing had happened. He seemed to be deep in thought when she'd asked he told her he was trying to find the right way to word his questions that he wanted to know some things but he didn't want to hurt her feelings by saying it wrong.

"Henry, you won't hurt my feelings. Just ask me what you came to ask."

"Why?" Why what?

"Why ask?"

"No, that's my question. Why? Why did you enact the curse? Why do you hate Snow so much? Just why?" He looked so earnest, like he was genuinely confused. Almost like he couldn't believe he'd never asked before. Like this question was an obvious one to ask, but he'd just never taken the time before.

"Why did you decide to ask me that now?"

"I met someone, a new friend, and she pointed out that I know the reason behind so many other things. That the reasons behind what they did made me more inclined to forgive them. Then when she asked me why you did what you did I couldn't tell her, because I didn't know. So now I'm asking why you did it."

No one had ever asked her that before. Either they already knew or they just didn't care why they only really cared about Snow White and her band of little merry do gooders. She thought about what to tell him, should she tell him the truth? This might be her only chance to tell him everything, to help him understand, and even if she never got him back she had this chance now to help him understand. Even if he never loved her again, maybe after today he just wouldn't hate her, and maybe that would be enough.

"Well I guess it's all connected. I hate Snow White because when she was younger about your age really, she told someone a secret of mine and the man I loved very much was killed because of it. At first I tried to let it go I really did, intellectually I knew that she was just a child and she was tricked into revealing my secret, but the more time that passed, and the more my life changed in ways I didn't want it to the angrier I became. Her life was turning out just as she'd always dreamed she had everything she'd ever wanted. Then one day I was just sitting there thinking about how different my life could have been if only he'd survived and we'd run away together like we'd planned and I just started to blame her. She was the reason he was gone, so it followed that everything else that changed because of his death was also her fault.

"I did a lot of bad things trying to make the pain I felt go away. I thought that if she knew my pain, if she felt it like I did, if she had a whole in her heart like I did then I would feel better. But everything I did, it never worked, my life still fell apart and she got loyal friends and the love of her life out of it. Then they joined forces and they defeated me, banished me, and they were together happily ever after. The day I got the announcement of their wedding I felt this black bone deep rage well up inside of me and I couldn't make it stop. She was getting everything. Everything I tried, all those years, and she was still going to get the love of her life while mine was dead because of her.

"Then I remembered the curse. My friend Maleficent had told me about it before, she'd gotten it in trade with Rumplestiltskin long ago but she said she'd never enact it. That it was too evil even for her and I thought what a wonderful idea. You know the rest."

Henry didn't know what to say. He'd half expected some pitiful excuse of no one ever loved me or something along those lines but this? Strangely he kind of understood this. He probably wouldn't have before talking with Lydia but during her explanation he'd put himself in her place. Her love dead all because a little girl couldn't keep a secret then that girl grows up to have everything she ever wanted, everything Regina had taken from her. Yeah he could see how that might eat away at someone. He wasn't condoning what she did, the curse had still been beyond evil but maybe it was if not forgivable at least a little understandable. It almost sounded like everything had just gotten away from her.

He opened his mouth to tell her that he forgave her when he heard the front door slam open and multiple footsteps come rushing towards them in the kitchen. His mom moved around until she was in front of him, protecting him like she always had. Looking around her at the doorway he saw Snow, Charming, and Emma standing there looking very very angry with his mom.

**A/N - Uh oh parental show down ahead. I'm gonna be posting more of this story soon but I haven't even finished the outline yet so it'll be a while before it's anywhere near done. Can't say how regularly I'll be posting updates of this story but I can say I'm working on getting all my in-progress stories competed as soon as possable cause I got so many more I want to get started on but I don't want to have a dozen ongoing stories so I'll finish these before I start any more.**


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